24 The Rifle and Hound in Ceylon. 



scream of his trumpet that we heard ! and he is right 

 among us. How we should bolt ! How we should 

 run at the first start until we could get a gun ! But let 

 him continue this pursuit, and how long would he be 

 without a ball in his head ? 



It is precisely the same in attacking a herd of elephants 

 or any other animals unaware ; they are taken by sur- 

 prise, and are for the moment panic-stricken. But let 

 our friends X., Y., Z., who have just bagged three 

 elephants so easily, continue the pursuit, hunt the re- 

 maining portion of the herd down till one by one they 

 have nearly all fallen to the bullet — X., Y., Z., will have 

 had enough of it ; they will be blinded by perspiration, 

 torn by countless thorns, as they have rushed through 

 the jungles determined not to lose sight of their game, 

 soaked to the skin as they have waded through inter- 

 vening streams, and will entirely have altered their 

 opinion as to elephants invariably running away, as 

 they will very probably have seen one turn sharp around 

 from the retreating herd, and charge straight into them 

 when they least expected it. At any rate, after a hunt 

 of this kind they can form some opinion of the excite- 

 ment of the true sport. 



The first attack upon a herd by a couple of first-rate 

 elephant-shots frequently ends the contest in a few 

 seconds by the death of every elephant. I have fre- 

 quently seen a small herd of five or six elephants 

 annihilated in as many seconds after a well-planned 

 approach in thick jungle, when they have been dis- 

 covered standing in a crowd and presenting favorable 

 shots. In such an instance the sport is so soon concluded 

 that the only excitement consists in the cautious advance 

 to the attack through bad jungle. 



